| INTERVIEW
The recently deceased, world renowned authority
in the area of the
martial arts, Donn Draeger, devoted two
books to the Indonesian
martial arts and called Pencak Silat "One
of the world's most deadly
and efficient arts". And indeed, you can't
but look on in
fascination and astonishment, when two
Pencak experts, with
lightning speed, but at the same time
grace, jet around, over and
under each other. Flashing movements to
the eyes, groin and throat,
kicks from the most impossible positions,
from crawling on the
ground, to flying scissors to the neck.
I can support all arguments as
Pentjak not being a sport, because it
is much too dangerous to be
one. Kepala Guru Henri de Thomis is 59
years old, and
employed with the state police and has
been teaching Pentjak in
Holland for the last 20 years. Or perhaps
it is better to speak of his
Pentjak, the Bonkot.
It is a style he himself created after
long years of studying many
styles of Pentjak Silat.
HdT: I started when I was about ten years
old. My father was my
first teacher, although his style wasn't
as much Pentjak as Pukulan
(a purely reality oriented combat method,
without the gracious
movements of Pentjak -wr.).
But he was only one of my gurus. Besides
Pentjak I also trained
Kuntao ( a martial art taught in the Chinese
communities of
Indonesia, comparable to what we know
as Kung Fu -wr.), and thus
underwent many influences. We trained
on a small attic or
totally outdoors. I still remember the
saturday evenings, it was warm,
sticky and you could hear the drums beating.
You only needed to
follow the sound and you naturally ended
up in the training place. I
myself trained 3 times a week and in the
weekends went to
train with other teachers, which in those
days wasn't easy, because
of the closed character of the art. Every
style was different and was
kept a closely guarded secret. In those
days I practiced Serak, a
form of Pukulan. Later I practiced Cimande
and when I came to
East- Java, Dero Somo (D'ro S'omo).
I was insatiable, again and again I wanted
to study new styles, find
different Gurus and in this way gather
knowledge of Pentjak. At a
certain moment I was unstoppable.
In 1959 de Thomis came to Holland and here
too, he expanded his
knowledge of the martial arts. Finally,
he ended up at sportschool
Bregonje in Groningen and aquanted himself
with Kyokushinkai
Karate. His exposure to this hard karate
style would later be of great
influence in his development of the concept
of letting Pencak practitioners
have the opportunity to enter "normal"
martial arts events.
Especially his son Raoul made furore at
the national karate shiaos
and easily maintained himself at the national
selections of '74-'75.
HdT: It especially irked my sons that Pentjak
was thought so lowly
of. Although I myself didn't care that
much, they were eager to
proof to any who would listen that they
could do more than
"dancing".
Of course, Pencak isn't a contest sport,
but to give the youth an
outlet for their competitive urges I let
them take part in games.
Better that they proof themselves there
than anywhere else.
HdT: Pencak is a play which has many low
stances, which is hard
and destructive, and which really has
to only be used as an
emergency break.
By letting them participate in Karate and
All Style games, they learn
to fight on all levels. Look, what they
show in those matches is only
30% of all techniques, but you know, the
outlet is very important.
Let them enjoy themselves there. I always
say, you're not
accountable for what you think, but you
are for what you do, and I
hope I never have to pull that emergency
break called Pencak Silat.
The Guru certainly isn't soft on his students.
As gentle as he teaches
children, so hard is he on his older students
and assistants.
HdT: Life is hard, my life has been hard.
The experience you gain
here, you take into society, and there
you have to be able to be hard
on yourself as well; I want my students
to become strong and
balanced people and if that means that
I have to be hard on them, I
certainly won't hesitate to do so.
Legion are the stories which go around
of superhuman powers of
old gurus and although Henri de Thomis
is a sober man of practice,
he won't just wave them all aside. About
his own experiences with
inexplicable demonstrations of old Pencak
masters de Thomis is
remarkably silent. What he does do is
point out some peculiarities,
such as when he first had
to perform some menial chores for a guru,
before being taken in as
a student. Or he had to clean the garden
and when he finally
gathered all the leaves in a basket, the
guru came and tipped it over.
All this to test him.
HdT: Of course, I also heard the stories
of gurus who could kill at a
distance and such. I've also seen some
strange things which can't be
explained away easily, but none were more
or less remarkable than
the achievements of the fakirs of India,
and those are slowly being
accepted as true. I am a man of practice,
I have consciously
experienced the spiritual
aspect, but it never had a special attraction
for me. And all those
stories, well, there's a kernel of truth
in every myth or legend, but
people have a knack of exaggerating.
When we're talking about practice, then
we're getting closer to the
Bonkot, his own style of Pencak Silat.
Really, it is more of a
collection of the many Pencak styles which
were studied by him and
Kuntao, with an emphasis on combat value.
Proudly, he shows a photograph of some
years ago with him and a
representative of the Indonesian embassy
and the chairman of the
Indonesian Pencak Silat Federation, during
the official recognition of
the style created by him. The style, which
name is Bonkot (root, or
trunk), received its name from the same
chairman, Bapak Djunaidi,
and this is something for which Henri
de Thomis still owes him a debt
of gratitude. Meanwhile, the pioneering
work of Henri de Thomis
has resulted
in the creation of a ministerially recognized
Pencak Union in
Holland and in this way it is attempted
to regulate Pencak in a
responsible manner.
HdT: I think 2000 people are affiliated
but that's only half of all
practitioners in Holland. Of course, everyone
who wants to can
become a member, although they have to
allow comprehensive
study beforehand. If they want to join
us, certain standards must be
met, which I think is reasonable. If they
won't or can't, that's fine
too.
Everyone in his own way has a love for
Pencak Silat, only we're
enforcing certain norms. This doesn't
mean that other's norms aren't
good, just that they don't fit into the
concept which we have thought
out in collaboration with the mother Union,
the IPSI (Ikatan Pencak
Silat Indonesia), that's all.
For 49 years, Pencak Silat has ruled the
life of this dynamic man,
who, besides the serious side of teaching,
goes through life with a
large sense of humor ("It isn't the style,
it's the man which does it,
but only I think my style is the best,
ha, ha, ha"), a Pencak which he
cherishes and loves and wants to protect
against misuse at all costs
("My greatest concern is inappropriate
use" and "I don't want to use
my knowledge, you see, my condition isn't
that good anymore, so if
they would force me, I would have to finish
the job and I don't want
that, words are better than fists.").
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